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A BOOK REVIEW ON OBAMA’S WARS About The Book. The book comprises of 33 chapters and covers initial one and half years of Obama’s administration. The author mentioned his two assistants Josh Boak and Evelyn M. Duffy without whom this project would have been an unachievable project. He also mentioned a word of explanation about how the information in this book was obtained, evaluated and used. The core of this book comes from written records, national Security Council meeting notes, personal notes, memos, chronologies, letters, power point slides, emails, reports, calendars, transcripts, diaries and maps. The author has also attempted to preserve the language of main characters and sources as much as possible reflecting flavor of their speech and attitude. Intro. The book entails events starting from 4th Nov 2009, the day Senator Barack Obama was elected as president of United States of America, to 10th July 2010 when author of the book “Bob Woodward” interviewed President Obama in his Oval office White House. Afghanistan war remains main focus of this book. During his campaign Obama openly opposed Bush’s Iraq war and promised American people that he will end the wars and bring soldiers back home as early as possible. By start of Obama’s first tenure as president there were 160,000 U.S troops in Iraq and 67,000 U.S troops in Afghanistan, he after having sworn in gave his decision to pull out all U.S combat troops from Iraq, hand over security to Iraqi forces and promise Iraqi people to provide full support for stable Iraq. Obama was of a view that ignoring Afghanistan and focusing on Iraq war was Bush’s biggest mistake, he consider Afghanistan and Pakistan as real threat to US not Iraq because Al Qaeda and Taliban have strong roots in both the countries. Soon after he took office, he tasked his national security team to prepare review in order to devise a future strategy for Afghanistan. But Obama and his national security team soon realized that Afghanistan is a lot tougher than Iraq, it’s a hard bone to digest. Obama having gone through number of reviews and assessments given by both military and civilian advisors announced his strategic policy for Afghanistan on 1st December 2009. He authorized 30,000 more US troops in addition to 67,000 already stationed in Afghanistan reaching a total of 97,000 U.S troops and 29,000 ISAF troops from 41 different countries of the world and sanctioned a budget of US 30 billion dollars. Notes From The Chapters. On Thursday 6 November 2008, two days after Senator Obama was elected as President of United States Of America met Mc Connell Director National Intelligence (DNI), a 65 years old retd Navy Admiral, who prepared a series of top secret briefings on terrorism threat for Mr. President elect. During those briefings, an overview of all U.S overt and covert operations, their purpose, progress and difficulties posed to them in Afghanistan and Pakistan were presented to him. It also includes Al- Qaeda and Taliban’s future expected ambitions and their safe heavens in Pakistan, DNI also mentioned that the immediate threat to U.S does not come from war zones but from Pakistan where U.S don’t have ground forces. DNI considered Pakistan an unstable country of 170 million people, a 1500 miles border with southern Afghanistan and an arsenal of 100 nuclear weapons. He also claimed that there are 150 active training camps and other facilities combined with seven hostile regions forming Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) are about size of New Jersey. He also told Mr. President elect that Pakistan political government is weak and powerful military leadership and intelligence agency (ISI) enjoys most of power in decision making, but the dilemma with military and ISI leadership is they are dishonest partner in Afghanistan war, he said, “they are living a lie and dealing with ISI would break your heart if you did it long enough”. During one of the top secret briefings Obama half joked Mc Connell, “you know, I have been worried about losing the election and now after listening your briefings, I am worried about winning elections”. Obama, meanwhile started to select his national security team, he appointed Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of staff, Hillary Clinton a republican as secretary of state though some in close circle of Obama doubted her loyalty but Obama thought she is right person for the job, he asked Robert Gates to continue as secretary of defense. Gates had worked with seven U.S presidents as CIA analyst and later as director, he is doctorate in Russian history agreed to continue. Obama appointed James Jones, a 64, retd marine corps general, as his Chief national security advisor. David Axelrod as senior advisor, Thomas Donilon as deputy national security advisor, John.O.Brenan as deputy national security advisor for counter terrorism, Richard Holbrooke as special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Karl Eikenburry as ambassador to Afghanistan, Dennis Blair as Director National Security (DNI), Leon Panetta as director CIA. On military side Obama had Admiral Mike Mullen as chairman of joint chief of staff, General James Cartwright as vice joint chief of staff, General David Patreus as commander CentCom and General Stanley Mc Chrystal as commander for Afghanistan forces. On inaugural day which is 20th January 2009 according to US constitution, Barack Hossain Obama took oath as first black President of United States Of America. During his address he devoted one sentence to wars, “We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard earned peace in Afghanistan”. On 21st Jan Obama called his national security team in situation room a hi tech bunker in west wing of White House, commissioned a 60 days review to evaluate situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, during the session he spoke out his objectives, he wanted total withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq within 15 months and a smooth transition to Iraqi government and security forces. On Afghanistan he wanted a realistic review before taking any decision. A team of 80 drilled down on Afghanistan component of the review, Derek Harvey a retd Army Colonel from Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), one of the most trusted General David Patreus’s security advisors on Iraq and now member of Afghan review committee spent day and night to prepare a review, he concluded that U.S remained dangerously ignorant about Afghan insurgency , he said we knew too little about enemy to craft a winning strategy, if we continue to follow current strategy this might put U.S on path to defeat but if we restrict ourselves to timeline then this war cannot be won. U.S government has to make monumental long term commitment that might be unpalatable to American citizens. Obama again gathered his national security team in February and said he campaigned providing more troops for Afghanistan but he will take such a step not before he is convinced to do so. Obama tasked his national security team to bring viable options and discuss nitty gritty of Afghan campaign. He asked Vice President Joe Biden to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan, meet their leadership and convey U.S concerns. The Vice President met Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and military leadership, shared U.S concerns over instable and hostile tribal areas where Al-Qaeda and linked organizations have safe heavens, they rest, reorganize, plan and then move in Afghanistan without any resistance to carry out attacks against U.S and ISAF bases and they have intelligence evidence to prove that. He also complained about the role of ISI which is playing a multi faced game by supporting and maintaining some of terrorist groups like Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-tayyaba responsible for Mumbai attacks. Zardari mentioned his political hindrances and anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. CIA chief Leon Panetta told Pakistani President that predator drone strikes in their country are precise and kill only high value targets or seniors. Zardari in response said, “Kill the seniors, collateral damage worries you Americans, but it doesn’t worries me”. Next on the agenda Biden and his team flied to Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Biden told Karzai that he has to improve governance, remove his corrupt ministers and build his national security forces to deny Al-Qaeda and Taliban hold in main town and cities to earn confidence of local population. U.S and ISAF forces would provide all assistance to make it happen. After the visit Vice President told his team that Karzai doesn’t seem to help and wants a long term U.S commitment. Obama was not convinced by first review because he didn’t want prolonged war instead he desired to bring his troops back home as early as possible. He called Bruce Riedel who spent 29 years in CIA, Pentagon and White House to prepare a strategic review on Afghanistan and Pakistan and report directly to him. Four months earlier Bruce had published a book “The Search For Al-Qaeda” a 181 page treatise about the true national security threat; Pakistan, which he called the most dangerous country in world today. On March 18, Riedel mounted on Air force One and presented his review to President Obama. Riedel said Al-Qaeda is as dangerous as they were on 10th September 2001. He said although his first recommendation is civil-military counter insurgency for Afghanistan but you have to focus on real central threat; Pakistan, he recommended more troops to Afghanistan. Turning to Pakistan he said Predator drone strikes cannot win a war for you, we have press them to do more, he also mentioned Pakistan’s volatile relationship with India which can erupt anytime if Mumbai attacks like incident happen again. However the review couldn’t answer so many questions revolving in President’s mind i.e. How many additional troops will be required, for how long, how much budget etc. Obama wanted a strategy which should be based on precisely calculated timeline, involving minimum resources and a way out. He doesn’t want to ignore domestic economic problems at the cost of these wars. In May 11th, General Stanley Mc Chrystal was appointed as new Afghanistan commander. The General had served as commander of Special Joint Operations Command (SJOC) in Iraq from 2003- 08. Pentagon believed that he is the right man for Afghanistan. As soon as he took over, White House asked him to give his assessment for Afghanistan war in 60 days. In July 09, he presented his assessment before President and his national security team in situation room. Mc Chrystal said Afghanistan is much worse than he expected, there are 25,000 Taliban in Afghanistan; they are mobile, active and control major population hubs with the centre in Qandahar. Local population pay taxes and protection fees to them, even some of the government ministers have contacts with Taliban. General Mc Chrystal proposed a counter insurgency strategy, which demanded 40,000 additional U.S troops, out of which 10,000 troops for training Afghan national security forces and rest 30,000 for counter insurgency. The counter insurgency troops will be deployed in major cities to deny Al-Qaeda and Taliban access and turn local population against them which is not possible unless they will be sure that Taliban won’t come back and their own security forces are capable enough to fight Taliban. Beside this, Special Joint Operations Command will continue to pursue and hunt down top Al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership. Mc Chrystal said his strategy requires Afghan government to work on same lines and they have to put their input in terms of better governance and sincerity in building their own security forces with true liter and spirit. Replying to one question that how much Afghan forces would be required to take over security from U.S and ISAF, Mc Chrystal said 400,000 (260,000 army and 140,000 police). Chairman Joint Chief Of Staff Committee Admiral Mike Mullen, Commander CentCom General David Patreus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates supported Mc Chrystal’s proposal whereas Obama’s political team and Vice President didn’t buy the idea, who believed that military leadership is trying to box in the President and making Vietnam like situation. Obama’s political team after going through number of reviews and assessments reached to a conclusion that defeating Al-Qaeda and Taliban would require a long term commitment a decade or may be two, even then victory is not guaranteed, so they openly opposed Mc Chrystal’s plan, they considered such a commitment would be harmful for Obama as he will be running for second term in 2012. Obama after listening to all said that you have to come up with more options, he again emphasized to bring options based on limited resources, with timeframe and a respectable way out, he said he cannot allow an open ended war. Vice President Joe Biden proposed his own option which he named “Counter Terrorism Plus”, this option require only 10,000 U.S troops for training Afghan security forces and SJOC to intensify their kill operations against Al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership. General James Cartwright, number two in military hierarchy was also not convinced with Mc Chrystal’s proposal. Vice President asked him to prepare his own proposal so he prepared one, ”Hybrid Plan” which require 20,000 troops, 10,000 for training and remaining 10,000 for limited counter insurgency along with ISAF and Afghan forces in strongholds of terrorists. He also said that CIA has Counter Terrorism Pursuit Teams (CTPT) comprising of 3000 trained Afghan locals, whose number should be increased to get real time information and allow these teams with limited scope operations. President Obama now had three option A, B and C i.e. Mc Chrystal’s Counter Insurgency, Cartwright’s Hybrid Plan and Vice President’s Counter Terrorism Plus options respectively. President Obama said now let’s discuss every aspect of all options thoroughly before we send our kids in. The military leadership struck with Mc Chrystal’s proposal, Vice President advocated his Counter terrorism plus option, supported by Obama’s political team including Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, national security advisor James Jims and others who opposed induction of large number of troops and prolonged commitment. After around half a dozen sittings by President and his national security team over more than two months from mid September to November 09, during which all three options were discussed carefully. On 1st December 2009 at 0800 in Eisenhower Hall Theater of United States Military Academy West Point, President Barack Obama announced 30,000 U.S troops for Afghanistan war with budget of US 30 Billion dollars, he said 10,000 troops for training Afghan security forces and 20,000 troops for counter insurgency. Additional U.S forces deployment will be completed in next six months. A review of situation will be carried out after one year I.e. in December 2010 and by then U.S forces will be able to transfer to Afghan security forces and start thinning out by mid of 2011. The author Bob Woodward interviewed President Barack Obama in his Oval office on July 10th, 2010. During the interview Obama while quoting famous American told the author, “War is hell’, and once the dogs of war are unleashed; you don’t know where it’s going to lead.” Analysis. The book presented a picture of problems which Obama’s administration inherited from Bush i.e. two unfinished military campaigns. Afghanistan war remains main focus of the book, it clearly depicts that Afghanistan became much horrible for U.S than Iraq opposite to their expectations and if not tackled with care it could be another Vietnam for United States. Pakistan; according to most of the American think tank is central threat and victory in Afghanistan could not be possible without eliminating safe heavens from tribal regions of Pakistan, they also doubted Pakistan’s sincerity and role of ISI. However the author didn’t mention other reasons which led to failure of U.S forces and ISAF. Some of the reasons of failure in my point of view are lack of clear vision among combat troops, ground tactics, lack of training and coordination among U.S and ISAF, failure to control insurgency and civilian casualties. The book left the impression that defeating Al-Qaeda and Taliban has become dream of U.S and they are trying to leave Afghanistan in much worst condition than it was before U.S invasion. Conclusion. The book is good piece of work by Bob Woodward and his team. Author’s effort to preserve the language of main characters and sources maintains reader’s interest till the end. The author is very resourceful in accumulating top secret data for the book, he was even acknowledged by President Obama during his interview in Oval Office. The book provides reader a grip on how things are run at White House specially matters concerning to national security. Bold text